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I am continuing my series regarding my students’ responses to the prompt, “How I Want to be Remembered.”

Please remember that, with the exception of one student, all students gave me permission to share their essays, with identifying information removed.

I’ll start with K.

What a delightful young lady she was. She was so compliant and count be counted on to stay on task and help her classmates. I was shocked when she told me, about midway through the year, that she’d done a complete turnaround…that she had been a “bad” kid before this year.

I had asked what she could attribute to the change, and she said the entrance of her father into her life. He had moved to Small Town, USA, after learning that he had a daughter, and she had moved in with him. She grew up fast. I’ll forever love this young lady.

As for family I want to be remembered as the hard working six-teen year old who is trying to do whats best for her life. From making decisions like: who I wanna live with, to should I quit my job or not. I want my family to remember me as the teeenager who was six-teen going on thirty. As the girl who loves unconditionally. As a girl who will never give up, and will do things right.

The next snippet was written by E. He was a tough read all year. I could never quite figure out where we stood with each other. We had some issues at the beginning of the year, but my consistency eventually won him over, and I knew this the day he walked into class, giving me a fist bump on the way in. After that day, he would nod his head in respect when he walked past me in the hallway. Sometimes, it’s the smallest gestures that reveal the most.

His essay was very revealing. He didn’t speak much in class. His essay wound up speaking for him the last week of school.

This year I was failing my classes this semester and I was gonna just drop out of school and never come back but never gonna happen I told my mom that she said if you don’t your butt up I’m givin you somethin that’s gonna make you give up I didn’t believe her so she got a belt and she start whacking me with it she wasn’t playing with me.

I want to be remembered as the person that has goals to graduate out of school and hopefully make it to college what college Fsu of course its all about those noles!!

He has dreams, you see…dreams I never knew about but respect highly (even if I cannot stand his school of choice…LOL).

My next student, S, was such a delight. I saw a lot of growth in her throughout the year. She started out as being very shy. She rarely looked up and loathed standing in front of people. This confused me because she had told me that she did modeling work for a local business. I guess her confidence in front of a camera did not extend to the classroom.

She was very hard on herself and got frustrated easily. Read how self-aware she was by the end of the year…

As the 2014-2015 school year ends, I want to be remembered as the girl who cares about her work and also getting it done. I’m thinking your opinion of me is “she always crying” or “she is a crybaby.” Well I even know I cry over things that is not even called for ,but I cry because I care about my work getting done and trying to understand it all at the same time . I want to be remember as the girl who is always confused over things and tries to figure it out herself.

To the end, she got upset when faced with what she perceived was a difficult task. I learned to be tough with her (consoling her only made her more upset). By being a little tough, I’d watch her dig her heels in and refuse to let whatever task she was working at beat her. She was always amazed when I posted grades. I’d smile and gently remind her that all of her fussing and worrying had been for naught. Perhaps she’ll learn this lesson a little more quickly next go-around.

D is another gal I’d like to introduce you to. Oh boy, did this girl struggle. She had a lot of lows, so her highs were especially fun to watch. Here’s a glimpse into her heart.

I want to be remembered as the friendly girl and not a pushover because when I came to * High I was being bullied and some girl that I didn’t know was calling me bad names and that made me upset when the girl was calling me all these names and stuff and now, that I’m 17 years old I’m still here and still standing because nobody can’t break me down,but the good Lord Jesus because he is the head of my life and he is my savior because in my own words I can say ONLY GOD CAN JUDGE ME because nobody else can’t judge me even if I’m up or down,but still nobody can’t tell [me] what to do expect my parents because I respect them, even I respect my elders as well too.

She preached. Good for her!

To end today’s post, I’d like you to read S’s writing. She, like most of my students, faced very difficult circumstances at home. One thing that stood out about her all year long was her desire to succeed. She watched her grades like a hawk, questioned her scores, and actively sought ways to improve herself.

I want to be remembered by my self esteem. My self esteem has built up since the beginning of the school year because at the beginning of the school year I thought I was going to fail in reading, in math and even in biology, but I kept doing my work and I kept bring up my grades more and more. It made me feel good about myself. It also made my parents proud to see me succeed. Im just glad chance to show a lot of other people wrong. To show them what I am really made of.

In the future, maybe I will be remembered by how successful I am. Maybe I will be remembered on how my grammar is perfect. Maybe in the future, one of my essays or writings will be in the newspaper or even in a magazine somewhere. In the future I want to be remembered by how I made it to the top. That I can tell everyone “I made it!”

With an attitude like that, she will rise above the crap that life keeps throwing at her. I have every confidence in that.